1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a paper sheet conveying device and an automatic cash transaction device, and is suited for application to, for example, Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) that carry out depositing and dispensing of cash.
2. Related Art
In conventional automatic transaction devices, at the time of a bill deposit transaction, the bills that have been inserted into a customer interface section by a customer are conveyed to a discriminating section where the denomination, the state and the like of the bills are discriminated, and in continuation thereafter, the bills are conveyed to a temporary holding section. Due thereto, the bills are held in this temporary holding section, and the deposit is reserved temporarily.
Then, in the state in which the bills are held in the temporary holding section, when the amount of the deposit is confirmed by the customer at the automatic transaction device, the bills that are held are conveyed from the temporary holding section to the discriminating section again and are discriminated thereat, and in continuation thereafter, are conveyed to and stored in bill storage cassettes.
However, in the state in which bills are held in the temporary holding section, when return of the bills is requested by the customer at the automatic transaction device, the bills that were held in the temporary holding section are conveyed to the customer interface section and returned to the customer.
Further, when the amount to be withdrawn is designated by the customer at the time of a bill dispensing transaction at the automatic transaction device, bills in the amount to be withdrawn are conveyed from the bill storage cassettes to the discriminating section and discriminated thereat, and thereafter, are conveyed to the customer interface section and handed-over to the customer.
Moreover, at the automatic transaction device, when, for example, there are bills that have been left behind that a customer has forgotten to take from the customer interface section at the time of a dispensing transaction, the bills that have been left behind are conveyed from the customer interface section to the discriminating section and discriminated thereat, and thereafter, are conveyed to the bill storage cassettes and stored and kept therein.
At this time, the automatic transaction device stores, as left-behind bill information, information such as the denominations and the amount and the like of the left-behind bills that are stored in the bill storage cassettes.
Then, when a customer requests the return of bills that have been left behind, the automatic transaction device conveys bills from the bill storage cassettes to the discriminating section and discriminates them, and further, judges, in accordance with the left-behind bill information, whether or not the bills discriminated at the discriminating section correspond to the left-behind bills that should be returned to the customer.
As a result, from among the bills discriminated at the discriminating section, the automatic transaction device conveys, from the discriminating section to the customer interface section, the bills that correspond to the left-behind bills that should be returned to the customer, and returns these bills to the customer.
In contrast, from among the bills discriminated at the discriminating section, the automatic transaction device conveys, from the discriminating section to the temporary holding section, the bills that do not correspond to the left-behind bills that should be returned to the customer, and holds these bills in the temporary holding section. After the left-behind bills are returned to the customer, the bills held in the temporary holding section are conveyed from the temporary holding section to the bill storage cassettes and stored therein.
In this way, the automatic transaction device carries out deposit transactions and withdrawal transactions of bills that are desired by customers, and returns bills that a customer has forgotten to take from the customer interface section (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2010-272024).
Further, in an automatic transaction device of this structure, for example, a conveying path is disposed from the discriminating section to the customer interface section, and a conveying path is disposed also from a predetermined position on the aforementioned conveying path to the temporary storage section.
Note that, in the following description, the conveying path that is disposed from the predetermined position on the conveying path, that is between the discriminating section and the customer interface section, to the temporary holding section is also specially called the holding side conveying path.
Further, in the following description, on the conveying path that is disposed between the discriminating section and the customer interface section, the region from the discriminating section to the predetermined position is also specially called the discriminating side conveying path, and the region from the predetermined position to the customer interface opening is also specially called the customer interface side conveying path.
In the automatic transaction device, at the places of connection of the discriminating side conveying path, the customer side conveying path and the holding side conveying path, the path along which a bill is conveyed is switched to any of the discriminating side conveying path, the customer interface side conveying path and the holding side conveying path.
Due thereto, the automatic transaction device conveys a bill from the discriminating device as described above successively via the discriminating side conveying path and the holding side conveying path to the temporary holding section, and conveys a bill from the temporary holding section successively via the holding side conveying path and the discriminating side conveying path to the discriminating section.
Further, the automatic transaction device conveys a bill from the temporary holding section successively via the holding side conveying path and the customer interface side conveying path to the customer interface section, and conveys a bill from the discriminating section successively via the discriminating side conveying path and the customer interface side conveying path to the customer interface section. Moreover, the automatic transaction device conveys a bill from the temporary holding section successively via the holding side conveying path and the discriminating side conveying path to the discriminating section.
However, in the automatic transaction device, when the discriminating side conveying path, the customer interface side conveying path and the holding side conveying path are connected at angles of 90° or less for example, due to the sudden change in the conveying direction when bills through the places of connection thereof, it is easy for the leading ends of the bills to catch on the walls or the like of the discriminating side conveying path, the customer interface side conveying path or the holding side conveying path and lose their shape and become congested, i.e., it is easy for a so-called jam to occur.
Further, in the automatic transaction device, when jamming of a bill occurs in the vicinity of a place of connection of the discriminating side conveying path, the customer interface side conveying path and the holding side conveying path, there is the problem that, while that bill is being removed, the conveying of other bills must be stopped and the conveying efficiency deteriorates.